Virtual object movement

• US 10,311,543 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2016
• Issued: 06/04/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Energin, Semih, Paolantonio, Sergio, Evans, David, Rehmeyer, Eric Scott, Held, Robert Thomas, Ouellet, Maxime, Gavriliuc, Anatolie, Giraldi, Riccardo, Muehlhausen, Andrew Frederick
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Chong
• Application Number:
  US15/336,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20180122043A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/53 involving additional visual information provided to the game scene, e.g. by overlay to simulate a head-up display [HUD] or displaying a laser sight in a shooting game
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04845 for image manipulation, e.g. dragging, rotation, expansion or change of colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2210/21 Collision detection, intersection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2004 Aligning objects, relative positioning of parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2219/2016 Rotation, translation, scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/20 Linear translation of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof

Abstract

A method for moving a virtual object includes displaying a virtual object and moving the virtual object based on a user input. Based on the user input attempting to move the virtual object in violation of an obstacle, displaying a collision indicator and an input indicator. The collision indicator is moved based on user input and movement constraints imposed by the obstacle. The input indicator is moved based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle.

Claims

1. A method for moving a virtual object with a virtual reality computing device including a near-eye display, comprising:

displaying a virtual object on the near-eye display;

moving the virtual object based on a user input;

based on the user input attempting to move the virtual object in violation of an obstacle, displaying a collision indicator and an input indicator on the near-eye display, the input indicator having a same size and shape as the collision indicator, where one or both of a color and a transparency of the input indicator changes based on a distance between the input indicator and the collision indicator;

moving the collision indicator based on user input and movement constraints imposed by the obstacle; and

moving the input indicator based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle.

2. The method of claim 1, where the obstacle is a real world object.

3. The method of claim 1, where the obstacle is a virtual object.

4. The method of claim 1, where an appearance of the collision indicator mimics an appearance of the virtual object.

5. The method of claim 1, where an appearance of the input indicator is different than but derived from an appearance of the virtual object.

6. The method of claim 1, where rotation of the input indicator results in collision-permissible rotation of the collision indicator.

7. The method of claim 1, where movement of the collision indicator is further based on a simulated attractive force that pulls the collision indicator toward the input indicator.

8. The method of claim 1, where movement constraints imposed by the obstacle are relaxed as the distance between the collision indicator and the input indicator increases.

9. The method of claim 1, where the collision indicator and input indicator replace the virtual object.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising replacing the collision indicator and the input indicator with the virtual object at a position of the input indicator based on a condition of separation between the collision indicator and the input indicator.

11. The method of claim 10, where the condition of separation is the distance between the collision indicator and the input indicator, and the collision indicator and the input indicator are replaced with the virtual object at the position of the input indicator based on the distance exceeding a threshold.

12. The method of claim 10, where upon replacing the collision indicator and the input indicator with the virtual object, the method further comprises moving the virtual object based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a virtual window to maintain visibility of the input indicator or the virtual object.

14. A computing device, comprising:

a logic machine; and

a storage machine holding instructions executable by the logic machine to;

display a virtual object;

move the virtual object based on a user input; and

based on the user input attempting to move the virtual object in violation of an obstacle, replace the virtual object with a collision indicator and an input indicator, the input indicator having a same size and shape as the collision indicator, where one or both of a color and a transparency of the input indicator changes based on a distance between the input indicator and the collision indicator;

move the collision indicator based on user input and movement constraints imposed by the obstacle; and

move the input indicator based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle.

15. The computing device of claim 14, where the instructions are further executable to replace the collision indicator and the input indicator with the virtual object at a position of the input indicator based on the distance between the collision indicator and the input indicator exceeding a threshold, and move the virtual object based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle.

16. The computing device of claim 15, where movement of the collision indicator is further based on a simulated attractive force that pulls the collision indicator toward the input indicator.

17. A method for moving a virtual object with a virtual reality computing device including a near-eye display, comprising:

displaying a virtual object on the near-eye display;

moving the virtual object based on a user input; and

based on the user input attempting to move the virtual object in violation of an obstacle, replacing the virtual object with a collision indicator and an input indicator on the near-eye display, the input indicator having a same size and shape as the collision indicator, where one or both of a color and a transparency of the input indicator changes based on a distance between the input indicator and the collision indicator;

moving the collision indicator based on user input, movement constraints imposed by the obstacle, and a simulated attractive force that pulls the collision indicator toward the input indicator;

moving the input indicator based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle;

based on the distance between the collision indicator and the input indicator exceeding a threshold, replacing the collision indicator and the input indicator with the virtual object at a position of the input indicator; and

moving the virtual object from the position based on user input without movement constraints imposed by the obstacle.